The Orange Tree Day Nursery: Derby

Rainy days 🌧️🌧️ We have been exploring the forest 🌳school and enjoying the wet weather . 🌧️
Wise owls blue decided to put a tuff spot out to catch the rain . Then we all jumped in the muddy puddles 💦 whilst it rained 🌧️
We also enjoyed the mud kitchen exploring different vegetables for healthy eating week . We also made magic ✨potions 🧪 with pine cones , sticks and glitter . ✨

🌿☔ Forest School Fun! ☔🌿

Today at Forest School, we practised using our new litter pickers by helping to tidy up our outdoor area, collecting sticks and leaves. We talked about how to use our litter pickers safely and why looking after our environment is so important for our community.

Then the rain arrived… 🌧️

Luckily, the children sprang into action and put up our shelter in super-speed time! They have become incredibly confident using tools and working together to build the shelter safely and efficiently.

Once our shelter was up, we enjoyed our picnic together, staying warm, dry, and proud of our teamwork. What a fantastic afternoon of learning, problem-solving, and outdoor adventure! 🌳🥪✨

🐷🐮🐑 Sensory Farm Fun! 🐔🐴🐄

This week our blossoms have had a wonderful time exploring our sensory farm filled with spaghetti! 🌾✨

We squished, squeezed, and investigated all the different textures while singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm. The babies loved making animal noises, and some even joined in with a cheerful “E-I-E-I-O!” 🎶🐷🐄

This activity was fantastic for supporting communication and language development. Through singing, listening, copying sounds, and using single words such as animal names and noises, the babies were encouraged to develop their vocabulary and confidence in communicating with others. 🗣️✨

🎶🎵 Music & Movement Time 🎵🎶

What a wonderful session we had today! Our little ones had lots of fun exploring different instruments, making music, and moving to the rhythm 🎺🥁🎸

We enjoyed singing some favourite nursery rhymes, including Animal Fair, Tiny Turtle, and Wind the Bobbin Up. The babies loved joining in with the actions, shaking instruments, and discovering new sounds while developing their listening, coordination, and communication skills 🐢🐘🎶

All proceeds made at this event 🎤🎪 will go to the Harley Jae trust , this is to support children 👧with life limiting conditions and their 👧families 👦, providing essential care , equipment and resources .

Today in wise 🦉 owls blue 🔵, we explored our fruit 🍓of the month Yummy strawberry’s 🍓 . We used our safety knife’s and chopping boards to cut up the strawberry’s 🍓 and we spoke about🥗 healthy food choices 🥗. We then added frozen❄️ yoghurt and milk 🥛and blended it together . The children loved 😊being able to make this and said it tasted yummy . 😋

Last week we had a parent come in to talk about her job , she is an illustrator 🎨✍️. She showed the children the books 📚she had drawn in . She also showed the children ways to draw✍️ . They really enjoyed doing this and had a fantastic afternoon .

Our busy little butterflies have had such a wonderful day! 🦋💛

This morning, the children enjoyed making delicious biscuits, carefully mixing, stirring and then used star shaped cookie cutters to shape them. 🍪👩‍🍳

Later, the children helped to prepare the fruit for our afternoon teddy bears picnic by washing, chopping and exploring different fruits together. 🍓🍌🍎 It was a lovely opportunity to encourage independence, teamwork and healthy eating conversations.

In the afternoon, we took our teddy bears out into the garden for a very special picnic! 🧸🌿 The children loved sharing snacks with their cuddly friends, singing songs, chatting together and enjoying the sunshine outdoors.

What a fantastic day full of creativity, learning and smiles! 😊✨

In the wise 🦉owls 🔵 blue and red 🔴 we have been making the most of this lovely ☀️sunny ☀️ weather . We have been having lots of fun with water💦 and marmalade and Paddington the chickens 🐓🐓have had lots of fun too .

☀️💦 Little explorers at play! 🚤⛲

Today’s tuff tray adventure was all about water fun! The babies loved splashing in the water, watching the fountain spray, and sailing the little boats around the tray. 🌊🛶

Water play is a wonderful way to encourage curiosity, sensory exploration, hand-eye coordination, and lots of smiles and laughter! 😊💙